Some People Pay $10,000 For Just 1 Session With A Sleep Coach, But Like, What About Rent?

If on most mornings you groggily roll out of bed, mosey on over to the coffee machine in true zombie form, and never really stop to think about how well you slept the night before, let me give you some food for thought: Do you know what sleep coaching is? Some people — people just like you and me, who go through the same motions of being asleep and awake, and mumble under their breath about how there isn’t enough time in the day to breathe, let alone close your eyes for a second — are paying a ton of cash in exchange for advice from the professionals on how to score some quality shut-eye. The question, though, is this: is it worth it? I mean, can’t you simply adjust your bedtime routine on your own accord, without having to dip into your bank account to shell out literally thousands of dollars for tips you probably could have sourced from the internet?

Growing up, I'm willing to bet your parents always asked you, "How’d you sleep last night?" For me, when I was younger, I’d always just considered it one of those small-talk questions to make conversation, but now I find myself asking my husband that very same question as he rubs his eyes awake before heading off to work. So when was the last time you blinked your eyes open in the morning and, instead of reaching for your phone or reluctantly getting on with your day, paused to think about how you truly felt when you woke up? It’s honestly something that all of us could benefit from, to not only ask ourselves that question on a daily basis, but to answer it truthfully, and to adjust our habits accordingly.

Per The New York Post, sleep coaching is expensive, and it can cost you — brace yourself — upwards of $10,000 a session. Which, TBH, sounds a little outrageous to me, but can you really put a price tag on your health? Because, sure, at face value, it sounds like you’re handing a wad of cash over to someone who’s bound to reiterate facts, statistics, and best practices that are already laid out for you in plenty of articles all over the internet. But here’s what sleep coaches can do that the internet can’t: counseling that caters to your specific individual needs.

Sure, it’s helpful to do your own research and internalize the information that writers and journalists have gathered from experts in the space, but don’t forget, these suggestive listicles are only made up of general statements. A sleep coach, on the other hand, can offer information based on you, and you alone. To gain a little more insight on how sleep coaching really works, I reached out to Matteo Franceschetti, CEO of the mattress company Eight, for clarification.

Sure enough, a sleep coach isn’t just someone who spouts universal wisdom on the ins and outs of catching some Zs. Your sleep coach is there to help you identify what exactly is causing your bedtime issues, so to start, Franceschetti tells Elite Daily, they’ll typically ask questions about your sleep habits and hygiene. Those initial questions might include the following, says the CEO: Does it take you a while to fall asleep when you’re in bed? Do you wake up in the middle of the night? Do you wake up feeling tired? From there, a sleep coach can offer tips and suggestions on how you can tackle each of these issues, Franceschetti explains.

“All of us have some issues with our sleep, whether it’s maintaining a constant bedtime or waking up in a pool of sweat during the night,” Franceschetti tells Elite Daily. “Having someone or something to help you identify those problems, and help you create an action plan to solve them, can make a world of difference.”

Working with a sleep coach to achieve the epitome of a good night’s rest every night does sound pretty worthwhile to me. And, for the record, you don’t necessarily have to be experiencing something as serious as, say, chronic insomnia to benefit from talking to a sleep coach. According to Franceschetti, it could be that you may not realize just how stressful a new project at work actually is, and that you need someone to identify this as the reason why you're waking up every hour when you go to sleep. Or maybe you aren’t clocking in enough shut-eye to cater to your body’s needs, or perhaps you simply aren’t wound down enough when you snuggle under the covers, and you want to learn some relaxing, sleep-friendly strategies, such as meditation. Consulting a sleep coach can help with all of these things, says Franceschetti.

Sleep is definitely one of, if not the most important part of your health, and yet, “most of us spend a good chunk of our day lying unconscious on a piece of foam having no insight into what’s happening during that time period,” Franceschetti tells Elite Daily. Most experts, like Franceschetti himself, agree that everyone and anyone can benefit from sleep coaching. The question is, should you be paying $10,000 for it? After all, that’s a huge chunk of hard-earned cash, and things like college tuition, food, and rent, definitely don’t pay for themselves.

Look, if you can afford to spend thousands of dollars on one of the top sleep coaches out there, go for it, girl. Like I said, you really can’t put a price on health, and I think we can all agree that the right amount and quality of sleep can make you feel amazing. Still, for those of us who either can’t, or just flat out aren’t interested in investing that kind of cash, sleep coaching doesn’t have to be super pricey. In fact, sleep experts from the sleep and activity tracker company, WHOOP, tell Elite Daily that their service will only cost you $29 per month, and that includes the WHOOP strap tracker, which gathers your personalized data and uploads it to the WHOOP app on your phone to document your progress and offer tips based on the information being processed around the clock.

“Analyzing your personal data, such as heart rate and heart rate variability, the WHOOP Strap 2.0 tracks the four stages of sleep — wake, light, deep, and REM — and makes nightly sleep recommendations based on your sleep data,” the experts tell me over email. “As an always-on sleep coach, it empowers you with your sleep data 24/7 so you can examine how you’re sleeping at any time — when you wake up in the morning, when you’re going to bed at night, etc.”

What’s more, if wearable tech isn’t your scene, some mattress companies, such as Eight, provide sleep coaching for free because the brand's product is made with technology that’s able to read your body’s patterns. “[Eight’s] smart beds have high-tech sensors embedded within the top layer that collect and track biometrics during sleep,” Franceschetti explains. “You don’t have to wear or do anything; you just have to sleep, and then you can see your stats in the Eight app.”

Of course, buying a new mattress adds up, too. So if wearable tech is out, and you aren't in the market for a new mattress, Robert Glatter, M.D., an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, Northwell Health, tells Elite Daily that talking to your doctor might also be beneficial, as they might be able to help you identify possible medical reasons for why you're tossing and turning.

Bottom line: Listen to your body, and decide what's best for you. If you think you need to see a sleep coach, that's great. If not, technology is on your side, so go ahead and use it to your advantage, my friend.